Today, Think Progress points out an example of blatant hypocrisy on the part of Laura Ingraham, who appeared to be for the Cordoba Institute before she was against it. While at its core, this sort of hypocrisy is nothing new (see Newt if you have any doubt of that), it continues to point out a fact about the Republican Party and the right in general: They view minorities as mere "voting blocs" to pander to. And once a token attempt is made to secure votes fails, they go right back to the playbook based on Nixon's Southern Strategy, with its dog whistles and inflammatory rhetoric against the "others", in an effort to shore up their base.
There was a time, not too long ago (less than a year, in fact) that the "Ground Zero Mosque" was not only correctly reported as being neither on Ground Zero, nor a Mosque, but was in fact looked upon favorably. A New York Times Article from December 2009 was not only full of facts that are seldom mentioned today, but commented that the project was positive overall and supported by a wide variety of people:
Although organizers have sought to avoid publicizing their project because they say plans are too preliminary, it has drawn early encouragement from city officials and the surrounding neighborhood.
Joy Levitt, executive director of the Jewish Community Center, said the group would be proud to be a model for Imam Feisal at ground zero. “For the J.C.C. to have partners in the Muslim community that share our vision of pluralism and tolerance would be great,” she said.
During this same period, as pointed out by Think Progress, Laura Ingraham even hosted Imam Faisal's wife, Daisy Kahn, and was ambiguous, if not positive about the idea behind the Cordoba Institute (which, it should be noted, has not changed from December to now).
INGRAHAM: I can’t find many people who really have a problem with it. [Mayor] Bloomberg is for it. Rabbis are saying they don’t have a problem with it. [...] I like what you’re trying to do and Ms. Khan we appreciate it and come on my radio show some time.
KHAN: Yeah, we need the support of people like you seriously.
INGRAHAM: Alright, you take care.
So what has Changed?
Really, nothing. As I mentioned before, the events of the past several months regarding this issue is exactly out of the Republicans' playbook. Simply put, this is just another example of the Republicans attempting to pander to minorities in order to increase voting blocs. I recall during the 2008 elections, there were several videos on the RNC website of a montage of young, ethnically diverse (but mostly black) people claiming they were "Proud to vote Republican in 2008". There was Bobby Jindal's response to Pres. Obama's speech in 2009, and the usual pandering to conservative Hispanics in battleground states like Florida.
And yet, when all of these short term, shallow attempts at sweeping away years of unartfully hidden bias and reliance on the white, low-and-middle income voter are seen through, they go right back to jettisoning their half-hearted attempts at voter exploitation and stick with what they know: pitting "us" against "them"
INGRAHAM: There’s a disconnect, George, between the elites and the way they think about this, and, I think most New Yorkers, and most of the country. I know Michael Bloomberg was out there saying, “Well, our values need to be properly represented to the world, and if this mosque isn’t going to be built, what is that going to say? The terrorists win!” Well, I say the terrorists have won with how this has gone down. 600 feet from where thousands of our fellow Americans were incinerated in the name of political Islam, and we’re supposed to be cheering this?!
Elites. Terrorists. "Most of the Country".
Stay Classy Laura and the rest of the GOP